Unlikely Hero

Growing up established a number of caveats for me to internalize. Two that quickly come to mind are "Heroes have feet of clay" and "All cats are grey in the dark." I didn't like the feet of clay proposal as JFK was my hero, in fact still is in spite of the prohibition. Not a perfect human being, but definitely a leader.

Now, a person that I really admire comes out of the financial community. "Whoa!" you say, "After all the pain they have collectively caused the country, are you stupid?"

A little while back Warren Buffett gave thirty five billion dollars away to charity. Not only incredible, but he did it with a sense of humor. When he was asked in the Time Magazine interview why he wanted to make a lot of money he replied that he wanted to be independent.

Now that sounds to me like a perfect motive. Most capitalists get caught up in the illusion that money has value in and of itself, but I don't think Warren falls into this camp. My guess would be that he knows the only difference between the richest man in the world and the poorest is one day without food and water. Our county has a huge debt problem that could be partially helped if the rich weren't given so many tax breaks. Recently when talking about the unfairness of tax policy in the U.S. he pointed out that his secretary paid a higher percentage of tax on her income than he did on his. The man is clear sighted and fair even when it would cost him. To me this echoes, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."